Paul Bunyan Days 2010 .......Totally Worth It !

Yesterday was the annual Paul Bunyan Days Fireworks Show. I will typically spend the whole year, after the last one, trying to figure out a way to get out of going the next time. The excuses come more rapid fire when there are about 2 weeks left to go before the great and glorious event.  I will usually pray for rain or sickness, which I know sounds silly, but the thought of trying to get through a crowd of about 12,000 to watch fireworks does nothing for me except make me cringe, not to mention trying to get out of the parking lot afterward. This year, it rained. I was ecstatic! I thought for sure I would get out of it! Not! It stopped raining at some point and the sun actually made an appearance as if to mock me saying Ha...HA HA!  When I found out my BFF was sick I was like, honey, I can stay with her and keep her company, I'm sure she will be lonely! He was like, Not! Foiled again! Not even sympathy for my friend would sway my husband this year.  The excuses I used ranged from I will be to cold,  to my friend is not going, why do I have to.
Needless to say, my husband was not listening, and with Grandma in tow, off we went. Every year for the past 5 or 6 years we head on over to the First Avenue Baptist Church for the Joy Night Sing-Along. Since our church was hosting it, it seemed like a good idea to go support our worship team and enjoy some good music and visit with people we haven't seen in a while.  I , of course,  forgot my camera. I had been talking about bringing it for a week ( in between the times I was trying to figure out how to get out of going), and as I was sitting there listening to Brian pray, I suddenly remembered I had forgotten it and actually said ,out- loud mind you, "OH MAN I forgot my camera"!  My husband was mortified! He just looked at me like I had suddenly grown a third eye or some weird looking appendage. Thankfully no one heard my outburst except me, my husband and God. How embarrassing.
Anyway, back to the subject. We had a wonderful hour and a half singing along with about 30 other Christians and another half hour enjoying some snacks together, for which I was exceedingly thankful, as I totally forgot to eat before we left the house. I think the kids purposely didn't eat anything on the off chance that we would have pity upon their poor starving souls and buy them something at the fair. That did not happen. They did manage to finagle some pop-corn at some point.
After the sing-along we moseyed on over to find a parking spot for the most awesome fireworks display you will ever see. I have to tell you, you have not seen a real fireworks display until you see the ones at Paul Bunyan Days in St Maries. They spend an entire year preparing for it and it is truly a one of a kind show. That being said, parking is one of the biggest hassles you will ever deal with when trying to go see the above referenced show. For the past several years we have been avoiding the huge crowd by going over to the High School Football field across the river, but this year the decision was made to once again try to find a place in the park so we could see the ground show also. I told my husband we should try to park facing the way out and up a couple streets from the field. It would be a 2 block walk, but I felt sure we would miss most of the traffic if we parked just right. This is a huge step for me as anyone who knows me can attest, I am NOT a walker. The way I look at it is,  if I was supposed to walk I wouldn't have a car, and well I have a car so you get the idea. We ended up parking by ********, well it is a secret,  after all I need to be able to park there next year if I cant find a plausible excuse not to go again.
We started walking down to the field, it wasn't that far, and was all down hill, which most assuredly is a good thing. I mentioned earlier that we had Grandma along, and she kept up like a good little trooper (she is not a walker either). Come to think of it,  I probably should call her and make she is recuperating well from the walk back UP the hill after the fireworks show. We finally made it to the Carnival area and proceeded to try and get to the field where a couple people from our church so graciously set up an area just for us Fernwood church people. It is a really good thing that they were able and willing to do that, as if you don't have a spot picked by Saturday morning you probably wont get one for The Sunday night fireworks show. I again reprimanded myself for forgetting my camera and not being able to get any pictures of the crowd or the fireworks. It seemed to take a considerable amount of time to get to the field ( like an hour ) but I am sure I am over exaggerating. I think it was just trying to get grandma and 2 kids through the swell of humans without loosing anyone that made it seem to take forever.
The fireworks were awesome as usual, and lasted about an hour. It was a spectacular display of colors and sound, and everyone had a great time watching. When it was over, it seemed as though everyone that was there had the same idea at once, which was leave, get to your vehicle as fast as possible, and hightail it out of there before you get stuck in traffic for eternity. I know this, because I was thinking the exact same thing. Having been there, done that for several years now, I was fully prepared to be stuck FOREVER! So, we gathered the various blankets, bags, chairs,  kids and Grandma of course and skedaddled as fast as we could through the meandering crowd of party goers, trying to stay together and not lose anyone. By this time, we had 3 extra kids with us to help carry our assorted items and grandma back to the car. It wasn't a very far walk, but Grandma defiantly needed to be helped from the backside a couple times to get enough momentum to get up the hill. Phew, we almost lost her a couple times, but I was ever diligent in my quest to keep her with us as much as possible. She mentioned that it reminded her of a treadmill test and I told her well, if she makes it to the car that means her heart is in great shape! I'm not sure how she took that as she wasn't breathing all that well at the time and couldn't really answer me per say. Okay that's a little over exaggeration but you get the idea, she was not having a good time trying to walk up that hill. Having finally made it to car, for which I'm sure grandma was extremely grateful, we proceeded to make it out onto the street and down the road with minimal traffic, only one or two stops and out to the clear open road. YIPEE! We made it out alive and in less than 5 minutes, not including the 10 minutes to walk to the car. I think this is a new record for us, although I seem to remember that the drive out from the High School wasn't to long.
Paul Bunyan Days Fireworks are over for another year, school starts next week, and we will recuperate from our big adventure. I have a whole year to come up with another round of excuses not to go and the kids have another year to come up with reasons why we should go. I'm thinking that Grandma may need to tag-along with someone who has a more sedate pace to them and no up-hill walking planned. It actually was alot of fun and the 2 pairs of socks, knee-hi leather moccasins, 2 heavy cotton skirts, fleece gloves and 3 sweaters kept me warm and toasty the whole time. Maybe next year I wont try to find an excuse not to go, but ways to make it more pleasant when we do, now wouldn't that be something !